Nabr, co-founded by Bjarke Ingels, looks to reimagine the future of urban living

Nabr, a first-of-its-kind residential development company co-founded by Bjarke Ingels, Toni Bahar, and Nicholas Chim, is hoping to reimagine the future of urban living by offering personalized, sustainable urban homes that will be co-designed with each resident.

The “people-first” company has a five-step process that allows residents to purchase and customize their homes. The first step is to join the waitlist and answer a short questionnaire explaining any needs or desires for the home. When an apartment becomes available, Nabr will reach out to move forward to the next step.

Step two is to customize the home. Buyers will receive an invite to Nabr’s Design Studio to select and customize the home from a curated list of layouts, interiors, and optional upgrades. Step three allows buyers to choose their path to ownership. Buyers can buy upfront or qualify for Nabr’s LEAP program to lock in the purchase price on day one while paying a monthly lease and earning credits toward the home purchase. Step four sees buyers reserving the home with a $1,000 refundable reservation fee, and step 5 is to officially pre-order the home with a non-refundable deposit as low as 1% of the home’s purchase price.

Nabr features

SoFa One, located in downtown San Jose, will be the company’s first development. It will include 125 personalized, sustainable homes in studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom+ layouts. SoFa One, as well as all subsequent Nabr developments, will feature View Smart Windows. View Smart Windows automatically adjust to provide continuous access to natural light and outdoor views while minimizing heat and glare. The windows reduce energy consumption for cooling and lighting by up to 20%. Nabr developments will also use View’s cloud-connected smart building network, View Net, to power all connected products such as smart locks, access controls, air quality sensors, smart thermostats, and parking.

Prices for SoFa One apartments will start in the high $700Ks. The development is expected to break ground in summer 2022 with occupancy expected by summer 2023.

Despite a disruptive pandemic, investor demand for multifamily real estate was strong in 2020, according to a newly released Yardi Matrix Bulletin. Around 252,000 apartment units were absorbed last year. That’s about 1.7% of total market stock and down 12% from the 286,300 apartments purchased in 2019.